What the Water Gave Us
by vampireinadeviltown
Summary: Hook's men catch something other than fish in their nets.
1. Chapter 1

_**And the arms of the ocean are carrying me**_

_**And all this devotion was rushing out of me**_

**_In the crushes of heaven for a sinner like me_  
_But the arms of the ocean delivered me_**

Shaking and shivering she was hauled out of the water and onto the hard wooden deck of the ship she had spent so much time admiring. She tried to speak but no words came out. This wasn't where she was supposed to be, she was supposed to find Eric. She made the deal with Ursula, her time was limited, she had to find her prince.

"Captain!" A man in a red cap said as he pulled the netting away from the young woman. A few fish flopped next to her, gasping for air, but he paid them no mind, fixated on the wide green eyes of the terrified girl.

The men stood straight as the thump of heavy boots resonated across the ship. Down the stairs was the man she had seen so many times she had lost count. He was as much a part of the sea as she was. Glistening in the light was a hook that was as deadly in appearance as it was fascinating.

"Gentlemen, I told you to catch fish, not women," he said before he paused a moment, "though I see how you could get the two confused," he said commented and a few men snickered. Kneeling down he watched her with an uninhibited gaze, his blue eyes darting across her and Ariel shivered again before crawling backwards, hitting the edge of the boat. "Don't be afraid little fish," he told her but he didn't move. There was no malice in his voice, but an ever present mocking edge. "What's your name?" He asked, not sure of the proper protocol to catching a woman in your fishing net.

She opened her mouth but no sound came out and it startled her again. It was such a foreign feeling. Pointing at her throat she shook her head.

"I don't fink she can speak capt'n," one sailor spoke up.

Hook rolled his eyes up to look at the man, "what gave you that idea?" He asked, boredom dripping off of his words.

Ariel eyed him carefully. A _pirate_. That was what her father had called him. A scoundrel, a villain, a devil. He who is so vain to think he can master the sea has no place in your heart, Ariel. That was what he had said. She had abandoned her pirate, she had stopped singing to him as he passed through her waters, had he noticed?

An inkling of recognition crept into Killian's mind. He had seen her before, he must have, but how? Surely he would have remembered an encounter with such a stunning woman, but he couldn't quite put a finger on why or how he knew her.

"Let's get you cleaned up," he said as he took his jacket off and held his hand out for her.

Hesitating a moment Ariel took his hand, using him as a weight in which to help herself stand. Stand. She was standing. Elated, the thought occurred to her just as she teetered forward and fell, her knees crashing onto the hard wooden surface of the boat. She opened her mouth in a silent cry as the men around her stared at her in awe. The captain draped his coat around her bare shoulders and helped her stand.

"Mr. Smee?" He asked as he draped her arm over his shoulders.

"Yes capt'n?"

"Fetch one of the dresses from one of our other…visitors," he said as he carted the unsteady woman in his arms off to his quarters. The warm body next to him was unlike any visitor he had before.


	2. Chapter 2

Tonight, we're the sea and the rhythm there  
The waves and the wind and night is black

Tonight we're the scent of your long black hair  
Spread out like your breath across my back

He had dressed her and had seated the young maid at his desk. "Do you care to tell me what you were doing in the ocean?" The pirate asked as he stood in front of her. "Can you write?" He asked as he handed her a piece of paper.

Ariel looked at the parchment quizzically before shaking her head. Thinking quickly she mimicked the motion she had seen many a sailor make as they floundered, graceless in the water and into her arms as she carried them ashore.

The captain laughed and she smiled timidly, pleased and hoping that he had understood.

"You mean to tell me you were out for a swim?" He asked as he cocked an eyebrow. His mocking smirk had returned and Ariel felt heat rush into her cheeks.

Nodding quickly she made the motion again and then clutched at her throat as if to say she couldn't breathe.

"You were drowning?" He asked as his eyebrows pulled together. "How did you get this far out?" He asked her.

Ariel shrugged and the pirate sighed. He wasn't going to get anything useful out of her and he had resigned himself to that fact. He just wanted to keep her in his presence, she was something out of his dreams come to life, an ethereal beauty, the sea incarnate.

This woman was strange, there was no doubt, but he felt a comfort in her presence unlike any he had felt before. Sighing he made his way to the door, "we make port soon, you can ride with us until then. You can't expect much hospitality from pirates," he said before he walked out.

Ariel sat back in the chair and smiled a little, he wasn't as big and bad as he wanted to seem, was he? He wasn't the devil her father made all pirates out to be. He was still the boy she had saved when she was but a girl. He was still the man she watched over.

Giddy with having met her pirate the excitement had made her forget Eric, if only for a moment, but as she stood on the bow of the ship and watched the wooden hull cut through the water she was wracked with guilt and fear. She only had three days and the first was coming to a close, she was never going to see him again. She was going to turn back into a mermaid, she was going to be chained to the sea once more. She would never see the prince again. It was funny to think that something so vast and unpredictable could be seen as cell, but to the mermaid princess, she couldn't think of anything more confining.

Ariel liked this form, for if she learned how, she'd be able to swim in the ocean and walk on land. Humans were so lucky. All she needed was her voice, if she could have her voice she would be okay.

Closing her eyes the mermaid let the salty air rush over her as she let the familiar sent calm her nerves. They had to dock sometime soon, didn't they, wasn't that what her pirate had said? She could find Eric then. The ocean was bigger and scarier than land, and she found him there, finding him once they docked should be no problem.

As her first night on the ship came to a close Killian snuffed out the candles and climbed into his stately bed. His quarters were fine and much larger than one would expect on a ship. He had the money of innocent men and women to thank for that. Killian never regretted his treachery, his deceit, or even the murder, he was a man that lived only for himself but for some reason he didn't want his new shipmate to know these things. He felt his skin tingle under her wide eyed adoration that surpassed that of a savior and the victim that had been saved. She _knew _ him. She knew him in a way that he didn't think anyone did, he just didn't know how.

As he slept, the ocean incarnate a few feet away, the warm waters below the ship filled his mind. He was a young boy again, drowning. His father had taken an eye off of him for on minute and the raven haired trouble maker had climbed overboard. His frame so slight and the distance so short he made not but a small splash as he plummeted into what seemed like the bottomless sea. In his terror the lessons his father had taught him seemed to evaporate like the breath from his lungs. His hands clawed for the surface but the water provided little to support him and soon he gave up the fight. The fire in his lungs didn't want him to but he couldn't help it.

Drifting into the abyss Killian Jones was preparing to say goodbye to his short life and then he heard her. The voice was soft and sweet, it filled him with a calm that he had never felt before. Did this happen to everyone that died? In a flurry of flame red tendrils, soft skin, and scales, Killian was brought to the surface. The soft sand providing a more comforting feeling than his awaited watery grave.

Killian awoke with a start gasping for the air that had not left his lungs. He was sweating and shivering as his chest rose and fell rapidly. The light of the morning seeped through the stained glass windows and the bed where the young woman had slept, his little fish, was empty.

Throwing on his clothes Killian wrenched open the door. Had he dreamed her?

"Where is our guest Mr. Smee?"

"We made it to port a few hours ago sir, she seemed quite ready to explore or summit, I don' know wot she especs to fine on Tortuga," he told him.

Killian looked out across the now sleepy island. What could she be looking for? She was no longer his charge, he told her she was to be gone when they made port, but a concern for his new friend ate away at the back of his mind. When the sun set the island's residents would awake and the poor girl would find herself in an entirely new world.


End file.
